The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-08-17
The Great DrOuth i'm
the West.

1t appears that while we in the East
have been plentifully supplied with
rain the West is suffering from pro-
tracted and severe drouth, the severity
of which is unknown to us here. We
have had dry seasons-what we have
called drouths - when crops have
suffered from want of rain, but such
utter ruin of crops and foliage as is
now experienced in the West is, as be-
fore stated, unknown here. The area
of the suffering territory is estimated
at about seventy-fve thousand square
miles. A local paper wildly describes
the condition as follows:
1t is within the limits of these boundaries
that vegetation has lost its normal color
and the earth its moisture. Day after day
the sun sends its burning rays upon the
parched farms and fields. Leaves are fall
ing from the trees, the grass in the meadows
has grown yellow and the streams in which
the cattle used to slake their thirst are dry.
1t has been nearly ten weeks since rain fell
in this district. With not enough moisture
in the ground to feed thistle, the condi-
ton of corn and the tender grass in the
meadow may be imagined. In southern
Wisconsin there are thousands of acres
where corn will not yield peck to the acre.
The crop has been scorched and almost
totally destroyed. The leaves of the cereal
are yellow and brittle and droop almost to
the ground. Wells have run dry, and in
some towns water famines are imminent
The drinking-water at hand is often polluted
and filled with poisonous germs. Typhoid
fever is becoming more prevalent, and dys-
EMERY and other stomach disturbances are
so common in some places as to be almost
epidemic Unless rain falls before many
days the suffering will be greatly augmented.
Without pasturage to browse upon or pools
in which to stand during the hot hours of
the day the cattle have become so enact
ated as to be wholly unmarketable. In
some places forest trees have been felled
and dragged to the pastures and the cattle
turned loose to feed upon the leaves. Hun
dreds of cows are being killed and shipped
to market to sell for mere pittance. At
Winslow, ILL.,, one farmer bought ten head
of cattle last January at $50 per head.
When he offered to sell the entire herd last
week for 800 he could not find purchaser
Farmers in this district have already turned
their cattle loose to feed on the crops
Adding to all the miseries attending the
| great drouth is the constant fear of fires.
The tall grass of the prairies is dead the
fields are ready to burst into flame and
leaves lie in heaps in the forests. A spark
| starts fire. and the blstering Sahara-like
wind fans the flame into a conflagration.
In some towns the people are often called
out three or four times day TO fight the
flames. Destructive fires have been rag
ing for many days in Kenosha, Racine and
Waworth counties in Wisconsin. Thou
sands of acres have been swept by the
flames and the loss to farmers in hay, grain,
fencing and buildings is very great. Above
Madison the boys are burning fercely and
the pungent smoke hangs over the country
for miles around. The northern Illinois
fires are so numerous that the farmers have
plowed the ground about their buildings in
order to check the spread Of the flames.
Should the drouth remain unbroken much
longer incalculable ruin will be wrought by
the fires, which spring up in unexpected
places and in the most mysterious manner.
In some parts Of the district the drouth is
have fallen from the trees. Potatoes, when